Intuistax (Stacks with Intuition)

[Elric]

A few weeks ago I put together a 7/10 deck with Intuition.  The deck ran well but I found that it didn’t abuse Crucible of Worlds particularly well since the only cards with good synergy with Crucible were Wastes/Strips.  Also, running Gilded Lotus meant that you could mana flood or fail to find enough mana a large percentage of the time.  

Intuition was often really good, though.  Getting an Intuition after Crucible or Welder usually ended the game and as decks shift to more basics the ability to get Strip Mine becomes more important.  Even without these, Intuition for Workshops, Crucibles, or Trinispheres were all good plays.  I gradually shifted Intuition 7/10 into Stacks with Intuition, or as RobtheSwordsman called it, Intuistax.

4 Trinisphere
4 Smokestack
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Tangle Wire

4 Goblin Welder
2 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Duplicant

4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar

7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Shivan Reef
2 Polluted Delta
2 Ancient Tomb


The first thing you might notice about the deck list is this: 29 mana sources.  Due to the incredible amount of strip effects that I have been seeing, I really wanted to have a basic Island in the deck.  Unless a Trinisphere is out, you can play a Welder as soon as you draw a red source.  You have twice as many blue cards as red cards (main deck, at least) and since a lot of your blue cards draw more cards preserving blue mana can be very important.  One of these lands might not be necessary.  I am loath to cut a colored mana source especially because so many good sideboard cards are red.  That would leave Ancient Tomb as the most likely land to cut if I went down to 28 mana sources.

The Volcanic/Island/Shivan Reef/Fetchland arrangement isn’t necessarily set, either.  The fetchlands allow you to accumulate land with Crucible, avoid Wastelands until you want to use them, and can get the basic Island when you want it.  Stifle seems to be getting less play as well.  The downside to these lands is that they can all be destroyed be a Sundering Titan.  For this reason and because you don’t want to fetch all of your colored mana sources out of your deck, I’m still running a Shivan Reef.  

I don’t have Gilded Lotuses.  They seem to go better with draw-7s, but decks like this tend to mulligan aggressively and getting a hand that can play a quick Gilded Lotus and do something with it is very hard to find at 6 cards.  You will have hands like Workshop, Mana Vault, Gilded Lotus, Trinisphere with Crucible and Intuition in hand.  A lot of these hands, though, would usually win the game even without Gilded Lotus.  Not playing Gilded Lotus also leaves the deck with only 10 (11 counting Triskelion) cards for Null Rod to shut off.

Crucible of Worlds: 3 is a really good number.  Occasionally I have one countered/destroyed and want to Intuition for 3 more.  This is rare, though, so probably not worth going up to 4.  Intuition for Crucible seals a reasonable number of wins.

Tangle Wire: A multiple-Time Walk that can be cast with workshop.  There are only 3 right now because of space and because you don’t necessarily want to draw too many Tangle Wires without other lock components.  

Smokestack: One thing that doesn’t get mentioned enough about Smokestack is how hard it is for your opponent to play around it.  If the opponent does not play more cards to try to make you sacrifice smokestack to itself after clearing their side of the board, they risk you finding a Welder/Trinisphere/Crucible and locking them out of the game.  If they try to play through it they expose more permanents (usually lands) to the smokestack and may be locked before drawing more.  

The artifact creatures: playing 2 Sundering Titans allows you to Intuition for them with a Welder in play, but doesn’t clog your hand like playing 3 does.  Having both Triskelion and Duplicant means I can break a welder stalemate by Intuitioning for a way to kill an opposing Welder.  

I have a singleton Duplicant and Triskelion because of what I like to call the “Highlander theoryâ€? of magic.  Both cards kill creatures and win games.  Triskelion deals with many small creatures at once and is more of an offensive threat, while Duplicant deals with a large threat and can become one itself.  If you only played one of these, then smart opponents might figure that out and play around it.  With one of each, correct play against you becomes much more difficult.  Often, opponents may have to simply concede a large advantage to you in a game when you draw the correct answer.

Thirst/Intuition: Intuition is a really good card.  For now, though, I’m running 4 Thirsts and 2 Intuitions.  When you don’t have Crucible or Welder, an early Thirst still solves mana issues, dig for cards, and get artifacts into the graveyard.  I wouldn’t mind having the third Intuition, but finding cards to cut is difficult.

Cards that aren’t in the deck:
Platinum Angel: This card really works well in the highlander theory and wins you games that you have no other chance in.  It seems like it would probably have to be a 5th big creature slot because it is hard to cut below 2 Sundering Titans and 2 creature-kill slots.

Time Walk: Tangle Wire tends to do the same thing that you wanted from Time Walk, only better.  There are some situations when you would really like Time Walk (to get a Goblin Welder active from a Memory Jar hand, for example) and a lot of times when it is dead or not worth the 1U.

Meditate: The deck already has a lot of draw/search spells at 2U.  Meditate obviously has synergy with Smokestack and Tangle Wire, but doesn’t seem to have as much synergy with the deck overall as Intuition or Thirst.  

Mystical Tutor: it is really nice to have another copy of Tinker.  Getting Ancestral is nice, too.  Other than that, I’m not playing Fire/Ice or a copy of Meditate so its use at getting anything else is relatively limited.    

Draw 7s (Timetwister and Wheel of Fortune): Ideally, this deck wouldn’t have to rely on the occasional major boost that draw-7s provide and could instead just steadily accumulate advantage leading up to the win.  With type 1 decks emptying their hands quickly (Workshop and combo, for example), draw 7s seem less valuable.  Timetwister also shuts off some of your graveyard recursion tricks.

I haven’t played the deck that much with sideboard in its current incarnation, but if it stayed similar to Stacks it would have:

Sideboard:
3-4 Rack and Ruin
3-4 Chalice of the Void
Other artifact creatures:
At least 1 Platinum Angel, possibly Memnarch, a second Duplicant, a second Triskelion
Other slots (Fire/Ice, Tormod’s Crypt, Red Elemental Blast- just throwing ideas out there).

Since I’m $3500 short of playing this deck in a sanctioned tournament, there’s no reason to not get input on the deck.  Plus, I’m definitely not the first person who came up with the idea of putting Intuition into a type 1 deck.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Joel

[martyr]

I think that perhaps the best point to come out of this "article", of sorts, was that bit about the ability to grab a Strip Mine after a Crucible. I play budget(-ish) landstill, and Intuition is definitely an intrigueing concept.

How I'm supposed to fit in Intuition in a deck that already runs Cunning Wish and has issues in the early game is the other question. Blech. Time to get testing...

[Marton]

The basic idea vaguely resembles my test deck. I tried making a deck that case get an effective use out of intuition, and here are some more common plays it can do (other than obvious 3x of the same card):

** with no welder in play
crucible/crucible/strip   or   crucible/strip/waste   (and sometimes crucible/strip/welder)

** when welder is in play
crucible/strip/xxxxx
crucible/artifact land/mindslaver

** when 2 welder are in play
pentavus/mindslaver/xxxxx

** right before a yawgmoth's will
black lotus/ancestral recall/xxxxx


usually the xxxxx are:
memory jar
big creature (titan, platinum, triskelion, duplicant)
tolarian
trinisphere
black lotus
gilded lotus


Generally in my (early) testing intuition proved to be the 'ultimate' tutor, pretty much getting you everything you wish for provided that you can play back the stuff in your grave (welder/crucible). However, generally intuition was only good when I already had a welder into play. What I particularly liked is that it allows for unexpected 'instant' mindslaver locks with crucible/artifact land/mindslaver. Perhaps theres some other plays that I missed out, but I did like in my testing the high versatility of intuition provided you have a welder in play.

Concerning your decklist, I am very surprised not to see fact or fiction. I will assume that it is too hard to without gilded lotus.

[BlkXplsn]

I haven't ever played with intuition in this kind of deck... guess I'll have to throw it together and test a bit.

What is your rationale for the shivan reef over another fetch?

By the way - the Mana Drain needs more thought out posts like this one. Good post Elric.

[Pex]

What is your rationale for the shivan reef over another fetch?

The Volcanic/Island/Shivan Reef/Fetchland arrangement isn’t necessarily set, either. The fetchlands allow you to accumulate land with Crucible, avoid Wastelands until you want to use them, and can get the basic Island when you want it. Stifle seems to be getting less play as well. The downside to these lands is that they can all be destroyed be a Sundering Titan. For this reason and because you don’t want to fetch all of your colored mana sources out of your deck, I’m still running a Shivan Reef.

[Outlaw]

My friends and I tampered with a deck slightly like this, it abused Intuition, Welder, Artifact Creatures, and yes Anger and Wonder.  Intuition is just an all around great card, even after you have found all your good cards via the first intuition you can set up a yawgmoth's will or thin your deck out of lands / moxes.  The idea of imputing Intuition into stax is a decent idea to me, finding that crucible lock component or an artifact that has to be in the yard.    My advice, is to keep your actual island count down, it really hurts when you have to pop your own lands to Sundering Titan.  

By the way - the Mana Drain needs more thought out posts like this one. Good post Elric.

I definitely agree with this, this is one of those posts that just asks to be contributed to.  


I think its a great idea, brainstorm I will on this matter and think of possible arrangements.

[WildWillieWonderboy]

I have serious reservations about this build, as it places yet more importance the perhaps overloaded welder. One thing that I definately applaud, however is the compact lock. I honestly can't see why anyone would play with staff and mindslaver maindeck. It even seems worth testing without smokestacks, and instead just using the traditional lockparts as speed bumps until you can drop some fatties, rather than trying for the full lock.

[DavidHernandez]

good post Elric.

two things really pop out at me:

1 ) running 29 sources, and

2 ) running only 3 Tangle Wires.

Regarding mana sources: The deck should run fine with 27 sources, and you don't need Gilded Lotus in there. With Crucible, you can almost ignore the opponent's Strip effects because you can go get what you need from the graveyard if they are stripping you.

As for Tangle Wire: this is part of the lock. You need to run 4 copies of your lock cards. This is really too important to argue about. If you insist on running more than 27 mana sources, use 28 and add the 4the Wire, or run 29 and then drop Duplicant for the 4th Tangle Wire.

Personally I think you should drop the fetch lands in favor of a maindeck Fire/Ice and a 4th Tangle Wire.

On the subject of Intuition: this is interesting and could have a lot of potential. I'm going to test it out.

As for Crucible x3: this is the right number. It's different from the lock components because Crucible is passive while the other lock pieces are "active". Crucible lets you do something while annoying your opponent. Tangle Wire/Smokestack force your opponent to do something that gives you a one-permanent advantage per turn. Or more.

On a side note, I met Robert the Swordsman at the Gems tourney on Saturday. Great guy.

Later,
Dave.

[Purple Hat]

Having played Stax with intuition some I'd have to say that it is clearly my favorite card in the deck.  If I see an intuition and have the mana to cast it I can almost always get something really nasty.  I personally like Strip Mine, Titan, Titan; but it's up to you.  I find that when in doubt adding Strip Mine or Sundering Titan to the pile makes the choice hard for the opponent.

Hale

[Elric]

So, after a while playing the 29 mana configuration, I’ve gone back to 28.  Too much mana flooding.  The basic island is nice, except that your workshops usually draw more wastelands than the colored mana sources, so it is often unnecessary.  Since the sideboard has a lot of red, I’ve dropped the fetchlands and the island for 2 more Shivan Reef.  I think 27 is pushing it a little too much- especially post-sideboard, you really need colored mana.  If you dropped an Ancient Tomb from a 28 mana source build that would leave your colored mana sources unchanged, but Tomb provides a lot of secondary acceleration and is often crucial for functioning under Trinisphere against opposing Wastelands.  

I might consider leaving 1 Polluted Delta in, even without the basic island.  It could be a little random, but Crucible + Delta generates mana, and the ability to drop a Delta and not have to worry about it getting wasted before you want to use it is nice.   More Shivan Reefs will make the deck more Sundering Titan-proof, though.

On Duplicant: he’s probably the weakest of the 4 creatures in the deck right now, so I will probably cut him.  Smokestack and Tangle Wire stop Exalted Angel, Darksteel Colossus and a lot of other creatures that he was meant to kill.  Welder recursion with him is really nice, but an active Welder is a good enough situation for this deck as it is.  

Fire/Ice: I’m not sure that Fire/Ice would be better than simply another Triskelion in the maindeck.  Without Mystical Tutor in the deck, there is no way to tutor for Fire/Ice, while Intuition can get a Triskelion into your graveyard to be recursed with Welder.  Granted, Triskelion isn’t as much of a threat with Null Rod out, but a 4/4 body is big enough to cause troubles for Fish.  

Tangle Wire: I’d consider running Platinum Angel in Duplicant’s spot, but I have noticed that when you’re behind Tangle Wire can turn the game almost as well as Platinum Angel.  I’ll stick the fourth one in.

So overall changes: -1 Island, -2 Polluted Delta, +2 Shivan Reef, +1 Tangle Wire
-1 Duplicant, +1 wild-card slot.  I’m going to try to see how Platinum Angel, Mystical Tutor, the second Triskleion, and the third Intuition hold up here by playing with this slot as one of these cards while thinking about how often I want each.  It could stay as the Duplicant.

[DavidHernandez]

Elric:

another good post.

I run 27 and only rarely get hosed. For reference, here is my mana base:

27 sources

4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Shivan Reef
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxes
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

I don't like Ancient Tombs in the deck.

While a single Fire/Ice may seem random, I like it a lot.  Also, I run 3 in the side.

The more I think about Intuition, the more I want to go test it...



dave

[zero]

I've seen a build like this in action, it runs pretty well so far. I think the intuitions are a great innovation,  and I've been trying them out myself. I've been screwing around with a U/R Stacker type build that looks a lot like your stax, except with juggs and su-chi in place of the tangle wire and smokestack, and a mindslaver in place of the duplicant (probably should be one, don't know why I used a slaver). I included the intuitions, and they are gold in allowing the trinisphere/crucible lock to function, or just fetching the fatties of your choice. It almost does what survival does in TnT, as well as getting your strips/wastes. Having the ability to reach into the graveyard with welder and crucible pretty much turns it into an instant speed demonic tutor for you.